Shell howls at the moon after capturing Kingsport Speedway Late Model Stock victory

With a full moon brightly illuminating the skies above Kingsport Speedway Friday night, Zeke Shell of Johnson City finally shook the bad luck that’s plagued him so far in 2012 to emerge with his first NASCAR Whelen All-American Series “Dalton Direct Carpets” Late Model Stock feature win of the season.

Mike Looney set fast-time in Late Model Stock qualifying, but following the six-car invert he was relegated to starting outside third row for the 60-lap main event. Shell and Lee Tissot led the stellar 23-car field to the green flag, and after completion of the opening lap Shell and Tissot were running side-by-side, followed by Nate Monteith, 16-year-old rookie Hayden Woods and first-time Kingsport Speedway visitor Adam Long.

Tissot moved into the lead on the second lap racing off turn four, with Shell settling into the second spot and Monteith in tow. The event’s first caution waved on the third circuit when Royce Peters and Ronnie McCarty got together and spun in the fourth turn.

The top five on the restart were Tissot, Shell, Monteith, Woods and Long. Back under green Looney was on the move, first getting around Long for the fifth spot on lap 4, and one circuit later passing Woods to advance into fourth place. But Looney’s night would end prematurely when he slowed racing off the second turn on lap 9 and dropped down to the bottom of the track before entering the pits with an overheating issue under the hood.

With Looney out of contention, both Woods and Long moved back into the fourth and fifth spots in the running order. While Tissot was in command out front leading over Shell and Monteith, Long was being pressured for fifth by Daniel Pope II. Pope got around Long for position racing off turn two on lap 12, but Long battled back to reclaim the spot on lap 18 racing off the fourth turn.

Just outside of the top five, intense racing action for position was taking place between Pope, Anthony Anders, Tam Topham, Paul Nogradi Jr., Blake Jones and Wayne Hale.

Disaster struck for race leader Tissot on lap 21 between turns three and four when contact from the lapped car of Brad Fluke sent him spinning to bring out the caution. While under caution, Tissot got alongside Fluke and showed his displeasure over the incident. But nonetheless, Tissot had to restart from the rear of the field.

Showing the way out front going back green was the 24-year-old Shell, followed by Monteith, Woods, Long and Pope. Shell began to put some real estate between his Fairway Ford/Shell Media/Nickels Speed Shop/Bobby Myers Performance Racing Engines/Hy-Tec Specialty Coatings/Marlowe Racing Chassis/No. 97 Ford Fusion, and his closest challenger Monteith.

Just behind the front-running duo, Woods was being pressured by Long for the third spot. Racing off the fourth turn on lap 31, Long pulled the trigger and shot past Woods into third place and quickly pulled to Monteith’s rear bumper.

With Shell holding a half-straightaway advantage over Monteith, Long and Woods, the last thing he wanted to see was the yellow flag waving. But that’s what happened, when Fluke spun his mount on lap 48 and erased the lead Shell had steadily pulled out to.

Knowing he’d have to get a clean restart on the cool night in East Tennessee and not spin the tires to allow Monteith to get around, Shell got the job done and once again began to pull ahead of Monteith and Long. While Shell was riding out front on the point, attention was focused on the battle waging behind him as Monteith tried to hold off Long.

After sticking the nose of his car underneath Monteith racing off the corners for a few circuits, finally on lap 53 racing up off (turn) two, Long powered his way past Monteith into the runner-up position and set his sights ahead on race leader Shell. While Long managed to close what was a 10 car-length lead Shell held down to a couple of car lengths at the finish, Shell would not be denied his first Late Model Stock feature win of the season.

Shell was chased to the checkers by Long, Monteith, Woods and Pope. Completing the top 10 finishers were Anders, Tissot (who fought his way back for a seventh-place run), Nogradi, Topham and 15-year-old Jones.

“This is awesome, what a great win for this race team tonight,” said a smiling Shell after climbing from his car in victory lane. “We started the season off with a strong second place finish, and then the following week we got caught up in a deal between us and (Lee) Tissot and really did a lot of damage to the car in the wreck. We had to take the car back over to North Carolina to the chassis builder and have a rear clip put on and then once we got the car back, the whole team had to dig in at the race shop and put some hours in getting everything put back together to be able make the next race. We made it, but the car just didn’t run the way it did at the season opener. With some laps at open practice, we just kept tweaking on the chassis and got the car a little better and last week we had a solid fourth place run. We’ve led laps this season and know we’ve got the equipment to run out front, so we worked this week back at the shop just trying to get everything fine-tuned.

“Just take a look at the awesome field of cars here tonight, and it shows you’ve got to really bring your A-game if you want to win a race here at Kingsport Speedway. I really want to thank my dad (Pat Shell – car owner/crew chief), Scott Clark, Matthew Ford, Josh Stephan, Mike McKnight, and my girlfriend Amber Abram for all the hard work they put into helping make this race team what it is – a front-runner and race winner. We don’t take winning for granted, we know if you want to run strong you’ve got to put the time in preparing your equipment during the week back at the race shop. We’ll take care of business away from the track, and hopefully we can come back next race and back tonight’s victory up with another feature win. Just looking at this trophy and the feature winner sticker, that’s what it’s all about – winning. It gives you bragging rights until the following race.”

Roger Neece of Clintwood, Va., remains perfect in “Absolute Plumbing” Street Stock action as he captured his fourth straight feature win. Neece raced out to the early lead over Tony Vance, Rob Austin, Duke Bare and Jared Broadbend. A spirited battle among Neece, Vance, Bare and Broadbend for position racing down the front straightaway on lap 18 resulted in Vance slamming hard into the inside concrete retaining wall, thus ending his hope of visiting victory lane.

Back under green for the final 12 laps, Neece, driving the Johnson Chevrolet of Clintwood/Pro Image Racing Graphics/84EXPO.com/No. 22 Chevrolet Camaro, held off Bare, Roby Orr, Austin and Broadbend for the victory.

Chris Neeley of Kingsport, driving the NAPA Auto Parts of Pound, Va./Tom’s Body Shop/Jerry’s Tender Butt BBQ/Pro Image Graphics/No. 94 Nissan, held off a hard charging Jason Ketron to win his second straight Pure 4 feature. Finishing third through fifth, respectively, were John Ketron, Keith Helton and Jeremy Hughes.

Tyler Goodwin of Kingsport, driving the No. 64 Bank of Tennessee/Bancsec Inc./Rockstar Graphix/McAulay Motorsports ride, continued his winning ways in Legends action, by overtaking Drew Shortridge for the lead on lap 5 and speeding away to his fourth consecutive victory. Chasing Goodwin to the checkers were Zack Walton, Jacob Owens, Aaron Lawson and Shortridge.

Abingdon, Va.’s Pie Short captured her first Rookie Pure 4 victory of the season.

NASCAR WHELEN ALL-AMERICAN SERIES “DALTON DIRECT CARPETS” LATE MODEL STOCK (60 laps)

Showing Finish Position, Starting Position In Parentheses, Driver Name, Car Number, Hometown, Laps Completed In Parentheses

1. (1) Zeke Shell #97-Johnson City, TN (60)
2. (5) Adam Long #3-Pounding Mill, VA (60)
3. (4) Nate Monteith #44-Blountville, TN (60)
4. (3) Hayden Woods #870\-Piney Flats, TN (60)
5. (8) Daniel Pope II #15-Smyrna, TN (60)
6. (10) Anthony Anders #36-Anderson, SC (60)
7. (2) Lee Tissot #27-Asheville, NC (60)
8. (12) Paul Nogradi Jr. #02-Clinton, TN (60)
9. (7) Tam Topham #21-Wytheville, VA (60)
10. (9) Blake Jones #80-Sevierville, TN (60)
11. (11) Wayne Hale #19-Bluff City, TN (60)
12. (14) Ryan Stiltner #22-Grundy, VA (60)
13. (18) Nick Cole #63-Bristol, TN (60)
14. (17) Zach Franks #1-Avery Creek, NC (60)
15. (16) Ronnie McCarty #5-Kingsport, TN (59)
16. (15) Austin Peters #66-Kingsport, TN (58)
17. (19) Brad Fluke #55-Bristol, TN (57)
18. (20) Joey Trent #26-Gray, TN (56)
19. (15) Royce Peters #38-Kingsport, TN (56)
20. (21) Rick Pannell #33-Kingsport, TN (56)
21. (22) Mark Christian #43-Blountville, TN (13)
22. (6) Mike Looney #47-New Castle, VA (9)
23. (23) Dean Barrett #82-Abingdon, VA (1)

“ABSOLUTE PLUMBING” STREET STOCK (30 laps)

1) Roger Neece #22; 2) Duke Bare #77; 3) Roby Orr #62; 4) Rob Austin #25; 5) Jared Broadbend #74; 6) Tony Vance #07; 7) Tony Ward #7; 8) Chris Tunnell #6

PURE 4 (25 laps)

1) Chris Neeley #94; 2) Jason Ketron #26; 3) John Ketron #26; 4) Keith Helton #9; 5) Jeremy Hughes #57; 6) Lewis Slagle #9; 7) Billy Ketron #27; 8) David Trent #57; 9) Lee Shults #74; 10) William Hale #55; 11) Kevin Darnell #11; 12) Dan Collins #4; 13) Sam Phipps #84; 14) Glenn Hughes #75; 15) Todd Cross #41; 16) Steve Skeen #17

LEGENDS (20 laps)

1) Tyler Goodwin #64; 2) Zack Walton #38; 3) Jacob Owens #8; 4) Aaron Lawson #31; 5) Drew Shortridge #32; 6) Adam Gray #37; 7) Hubert Whitehead #3; 8) Cortney Roark #02; 9) Jeff Roark #7; 10) Brian Tinker #14; 11) Tony Wiggins #4

Kingsport Speedway PR